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Pardon the irregularity of posting this week. It has been a crazy technology week at the 16th Street J, but one that we’ll no doubt emerge from stronger for the experience. Now for the links…

In the last weeks the 16th Street J has sponsored both the Miriam’s Seder and the Stonewall Seder–both of which feature an orange on the seder plate. In a moving post, The Stirrup Queen–who writes mostly on infertility, unpacks the history of the orange on the plate, and relates it to the media attention surrounding Thomas Beatie, the transgendered pregnant man.

Little bitty kids are always around since there is a daycare center in the building; good smells come from the first floor cafe throughout the day; folks come in after business hours with their workout gear to utilize the very nice gym facilities; there’s an art gallery and a library and classrooms, all of which are always in use – in short, there is a sense of thriving community. Most of the time we theatricals work in a fairly rarefied, sterile atmosphere, cut off from the world swirling around us and often, the people for whom we will perform. Not at the J – the theatre there is as much a part of the everyday world as the kids in the daycare, the mah-jongg players in the lobby, the scholars in the library and the sweating runners on the treadmills.

Via WaPo’s Post Mortem blog I learned about the passing of Eddie Willner, a Shoah survivor who escaped a Nazi concentration camp in the closing days of the war and found an American artillery unit. Willner ended up moving to the States and serving in the US Army for 21 years and retired with the rank of Major. May his memory be as a blessing.

Finally, you know a Jewish holiday must be close if the internet is beginning to buzz with video send-ups of that favorite stereotype…the Jewish mother. Please direct any offended sensibilities here.